Rediscovery of a Lost Painting by Alexej von Jawlensky, "The Praying Jew"

Nothing suggested that Alexej von Jawlensky would become one of the 20th-century’s leading avant-garde artists and a fantastic portraitist of the soul. The son of a Czarist army officer, he was marked out for a military career, graduating from the Cadet School in Moscow with the rank of lieutenant in 1884. In 1896, he left the army with the rank of captain. In the meantime, the aspiring young artist assiduously visited museums and exhibitions and took painting lessons. In 1890, he attended the studio of Ilya Repin (1844–1930), one of Russia’s greatest late-19th-century painters. This played a decisive role. Repin left a lasting influence on Jawlensky, whose early works bear evidence of the great…